Initial Interview
The intake report helps you to gather a broad range of information about the client. Typically conducted during your first appointment, the data from the initial interview will help you decide appropriate treatment plans and, if necessary, test selection. Therefore, it is important that you gather sufficient background information in the initial interview. Typically, this information will include the client’s family and social/relationship history, work experiences, educational history, and medical and legal histories. The counselor is also interested in a client’s self-perceptions, significant life experiences, and goals or aspirations. You will use this information in the Psychological Report that you will write later in the course.
For this assignment, the client is coming to you for one of three referral questions:
1. Would the client be a good candidate for participation in a summer mission’s trip in a very challenging environment?
2. Would the client be a good candidate for Senior Pastor at a large urban church?
3. Would the client make a good Resident Assistant (RA) at Liberty University?
You can either use yourself as the client or develop a character, or “alter ego,” that you will interview. Your paper will be structured according to the categories listed in the Sheperis, Drummond, and Jones (2020) text on page 67 (see template below). This project must be 900–1200 words (excluding the title page), double-spaced, APA formatted, in a Word document, with no abstract.
Important points regarding the Initial Interview:
1. If you choose to develop a character, your character must be an adult male or female over the age of 18. You must give your “client” a name. Do not state in the report or in communicating with your instructor whether your character is real or fictitious.
2. Because this psychological evaluation will not be performed for clinical, forensic, or legal reasons, your character must not have a life-threatening medical condition, a chronic or debilitating psychological disorder, or an extensive criminal history.
Format of the Initial Interview:
1. Content: Complete all the information under the headings of your report according to the format below. Identifying information can be in bullet points, but use paragraphs (at least 3-4 sentences) and general APA format for the rest of the report.
2. Write in the third person (e.g., “Mr. Jones is a 42 years old…,” “His greatest strengths are…”).
3. Your paper requires a title page. Head the first page of your paper “Initial Interview”.
4. Be sure to refer to the Initial Interview when completing the Mental Status Exam and Psychological Report later in the course. You want to remind yourself of “who you are” as you complete various tests for those assignments.
Note for those of you who choose to make up a character: Because you will complete all the psychological tests as your character for the Psychological Report, you must know this individual very well. Spend some time thinking about your character and make sure you have a clear image of who he or she is. Make a genuine attempt to visualize this person and to get yourself into the mind of the character you have created. How does this person see himself or herself? How does this person approach life, deal with challenges, and interact with others? Before you complete each of the psychological tests for the next assignment, be sure to review this information so your responses will be reasonably consistent across tests.
Referral Question Information
You must use one of the referral questions provided below as the “Reason for the Referral” portion of the report (you will answer the referral question in another report).
Referral Questions:
1. Would this examinee be a good candidate for participation in a summer mission’s trip in a very challenging environment?
2. Would this examinee be a good candidate for Senior Pastor at a large urban church?
3. Would this examinee make a good Resident Assistant (RA) at Liberty University?